The law as moral guardian and teacher: The case of the Canadian public servant

This thesis analyses the proposal that the law is the moral guardian and teacher. It proposes that, as religious institutions secularized, public servants became the moral heirs to the servants of the religious states, vertically in the time continuum and laterally in the religious to secular shift. This work is not a recapitulation of moral philosophy but merely an enquiry into practical ethics. Through first exploring the religious values held by the three religions of the Book: Judaism, Islam and Christianity; then reviewing secular values expressed in democratic societies, positive law, utilitarianism, contractualism, reason and indeterminacy, and civil religion; and finally retelling the stories of Islamic scribes, French fonctionnaires, American public administrators and Canadian public servants, this thesis presents a progression of moral values. It considers from principles of natural law to concepts of inherent moral stages and discusses how, in practice, the law is not value free. It concludes that a legally instilled morality of duty exists in both religious and secular societies.;The concern is with how moral values, principles and systems, are transmitted when religious laws and traditions are no longer the only worldview. A development with which pluralistic Canada--where moral values are still linked to their Christian cradle--has yet to come to terms.;Stress is laid on the Canadian publc service and how changes in conventions and legislation--from ministerial responsibility to Public Service 2000--affect it and the moral values it reflects. Varying views on the role of the public servant, from the image of the steady hand on the ship of state, the permanent government, to the cost efficient contract worker, are reviewed.;It is recognized that both law and public servants have a limited educational impact on moral values. It is suggested that educational institutions should clearly assume the role of moral educators and the formal development of a Canadian civil religion--a secular covenant which bridges the sacred and the profane--be undertaken.